These are not a sign of intellect and your readers are far too busy to spend time deciphering them. What information do they want in what form with how much detail? What is the main message to leave them with? Plan and structure your document based on what the client needs. Rather than just focusing on ‘getting it written’, spare a thought for the poor reader first. It is a myth that a reader feels patronized by explanations – readers feel empowered by the reiteration of terms they may already know. Explain any acronyms and outline any terms. Create jargon-free documents that are useful and speak directly to your reader. ‘Cutting edge’ or ‘innovative’ products and services are two-a-penny these days, so these words are a real turn off. People are tired of reading about ‘synergy’ and ‘high performance’. Sub editing is difficult and another set of eyes often spots something that you haven’t. Check and then recheck and then ask a colleague to check again. And often they result in a client questioning how much care you will take with their business. They say, ‘This person can’t write’ or, ‘This person doesn’t care enough to check what they’ve written’. Typos, poor punctuation and grammatical errorsĪvoid careless mistakes at all costs. Writing is a skill that needs to be learnt like any other, but even the most reluctant writers can improve their business documents by learning to avoid the most common mistakes which are listed below: 1. Time pressures and stress levels are not always avoidable however, and there is no real reason why people should be able to write well.
Reports and proposals are often written in a hurry, cobbled together at the last minute – with little thought about the impression they will give or the impact they will make. It is very easy to make a hash of business writing. Worse still is that much of this content doesn’t ever get read. So, with this in mind, is the content we are producing actually any good? The sad truth is that many companies appear resigned to wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars each year while their employees struggle for hours to produce badly written, poorly structured documents. Quality is essential quantity is preferable. Whether by necessity or desire, we are a nation of prolific business writers. How many business documents do companies produce each week? Think about the countless emails the proposals for clients the reports for management the plans for colleagues.
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